Holi is not just a festival of colours, but rather it’s made up of diverse traditions, some of these traditions are regional, and many of them are distinctly local. Hence, these traditions allow us to study the socio-historical peculiarities of their localities and how such peculiarities shape and manifest themselves in such traditions.  However, a general understanding of Holi-related celebratory traditions is that they appear to give a perception of temporarily demolishing the normal socio-cultural infrastructure leading to a state of ‘celebratory anarchy’, where gender, caste and class statuses get inverted.

The famous Lathmaar Holi of Nandgaon and Barsana of the Mathura region of Uttar Pradesh, which involves women beating men with sticks is just one such example which showcases the role reversal, here the dominant ends up being dominated though temporarily and in a celebratory fashion. For these very reasons, Holi-related traditions have attracted a lot of scholarly attention, particularly from sociologists and social anthropologists.

Social anthropologist McKim Marriott (1966, 210-12) in his paper ‘The Feast of Love’ provides an interesting case study of Holi-related festivities in the village of Kishan Garhi situated in the Braj region of Uttar Pradesh. Marriott observes that the Holi celebration in the village involved breaking of caste, class, age and gender-related boundaries, where women of low castes playfully attacked men of high castes, men of low and high castes mingled together, and the elderly ran away for safety from the parading youth. Hence, Marriott ends up giving a somewhat romanticised explanation of these traditions as marking a complete social role reversal though temporarily. However, other studies of Holi traditions have restricted Marriott’s understanding in one way or the other.

D. B. Miller (1973) in his study of the village of Badipur of Haryana, explains such Holi traditions through the category of ‘licensed rebellion’ stressing the point that far from a total reversal of social order, such Holi traditions are ‘temporary sanctioned rebellion’ affecting only certain social relations.  Similarly, A. Whitney Sanford (2006, 102) in her study of the Holi traditions of the town housing the Dauji temple in Baldeo, Uttar Pradesh, observes that one should not overestimate the role reversal. While there is more license than the normal to violate social norms for everyone during Holi celebrations, the ones at the top of the social hierarchy, such as men and upper castes have a relatively greater license to do so.

Hence, despite reservations, the larger understanding of Holi-related celebratory traditions remains that Holi provides some form of social role reversal of differing degrees affecting varied social relations.

A peculiar case of Jamua

I recently had the opportunity to visit Jamua, which is a village located in the Mirzapur district of Uttar Pradesh. At first, this village like any other village of eastern Uttar Pradesh appears to be anything but unique in its social composition or settlement pattern. However, its uniqueness lies in some of the traditions peculiar to this locality, the one which interests us here is associated with the celebrations surrounding the festival of Holi.[i]

The celebration of Holi in this village, much like other parts of Uttar Pradesh is a two to three-day phenomenon, starting with the burning of the effigy of Holika ( known as Holika dahan ), and culminating in Dhulandi or rangwali/abeerwali Holi. The day of Dhulandi is special, particularly from the sociological perspective, given that, unlike the above-discussed cases of Kishan Garhi and Badipur, Jamua differs in the sense that on Holi the regular social order far from getting reversed appears to be enforced further. I was informed that on the day of Dhulandi, streams of men both young and old, belonging almost exclusively to the Brahmin and to some extent from the Rajput castes from the nearby villages, take out a celebratory procession passing through non-Brahmin and non-Rajput localities, particularly through areas belonging to that of the baniyas (merchant castes) that’s from Jamua Bazar. This procession is accompanied by the singing of phagwa ( songs sung during Holi), and most importantly, the hurling of provocative abuses specifically directed towards the baniya castes of the locality. This yearly ritual by the dominating Brahmin and Rajput castes of the extended locality does not go unopposed, but as I was informed by the locals, at times it has led to violent skirmishes. Given that the Brahmins and Rajputs are adamant about the continued performance of this yearly tradition, the police are especially employed, so that the procession passes peacefully through the baniya locality.

This peculiar tradition of Jamua needs explanation. As stated earlier, usually Holi is thought of as a festival where the general social order witnesses a reversal, however, as we have seen the case with Jamua is unusual. Here, the caste hierarchy further gets enforced, where the Brahmin and Rajput high castes enforce their caste dominance and superiority over the baniya middle to lower-middle castes through the annual performance of Dhulandi procession through the baniya localities. While to fully explain this unique tradition of Jamua, an extended field and archival research will be needed, whatever information and understanding I have gathered through my short visit and limited interaction with the locals, can certainly shed some light on the possible material and social reasons behind this peculiar tradition.

The location of Jamua is such that even if it comes under the district of Mirzapur, it’s not far from the district of Varanasi, and almost borders Rajatalab locality of Varanasi. Rajatalab being a local economic hub has a concentration of economically prosperous merchant castes. Many of the merchants of Jamua Bazar have professional as well as familial linkages to this locality, and some even trace their origin back to this locality. Interestingly, many baniya families have in the past bought land to settle down in Jamua. Hence, Jamua Bazar appears to be an economic extension of Rajatalab into what is primarily a village locality. The penetration and rise of economically prosperous baniya castes of Jamua Bazar appear to have irked the superior caste sensibilities of the dominant land-owning Brahmin and Rajput castes of the extended region who are mostly concentrated in the villages around Jamua Bazar.  Hence, it appears that it’s this frustration which gets an outlet during the annual Dhulandi procession and gets manifested in the form of caste abuses against the baniyas of the locality. Moreover, given the relatively lower presence of schedule caste and schedule tribe population in Jamua,[ii] baniyas of the locality become prime objects against whom Brahmin and Rajput high caste sensibilities get defined.

From the above brief description of the Dhulandi tradition of Jamua what becomes amply clear is that Holi traditions, and Indian traditions in general cannot be understood through any overarching meta-narrative. Each region along with its inhabiting communities has their own distinct and diverse traditions, which are rooted in the socio-cultural and historical conditions which are specific to them. Hence, Indian traditions can only be fully understood when we consider the regional and local diversities attached to them.

References:

Marriott, McKim. (1966). ‘The Feast of Love’ in Krishna, Myths, Rites and Attitudes, edited by Milton Singer. Honolulu: East-West Centre.

Miller, D. B. (1973). Holl‐Dulhendi: Licensed Rebellion in a North Indian Village. South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies. 3(1): 15-22.

Sanford, A. W. (2006). Holi Through Dauji’s Eyes in Alternative Krishnas: Regional and Vernacular Variations on a Hindu Deity, edited by Guy L. Beck. New York: SUNY Press.

[i] I was first informed about this tradition by my sister Hema Keshari, whose in-laws home is located in Jamua.

[ii] Schedule Caste constitutes 2.50 %, and Schedule Tribe is  1.79 % of total population in Jamua village. See, Jamua population – mirzapur, Uttar Pradesh. Jamua Village Population – Mirzapur – Mirzapur, Uttar Pradesh. (n.d.).

https://www.census2011.co.in/data/village/211357-jamua-uttar-pradesh.html

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Mihir Keshari is a  Ph.D Research Scholar at the Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi. He’s interested in Archaeology, Anthropology and histories of South Asian religious traditions.